Commercial-Scale Demonstration of the Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOH) Process

Abstract

The Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOW) Demonstration Project at Kingsport Tennessee, is a $213.7 million cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Air Products Liquid Phase Conversion Company, L.P. (the Partnership) to produce methanol from coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas). Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air Products) and Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman) formed the Partnership to execute the Demonstration Project. The LPMEOW Process Demonstration Unit was built at a site located at the Eastman complex in Kingsport. During this quarter, initial planning and procurement work began on the seven project sites which have been accepted for participation in the off-site, methanol product-use test plan. Two of the projects have begun pre-testing of equipment and three other projects have commenced with equipment procurement, Methanol produced from carbon monoxide (CO)- rich syngas at the Alternative Fuels Development Unit (AFDU) in LaPorte, TX has been shipped to four of the project sites in anticipation of the start of testing during the first quarter of calendar year 1998. Catalyst activity, as defined by the ratio of the rate constant at any point in time to the rate constant for a freshly reduced catalyst (as determined in the laboratory autoclave), continued to decline more rapidly than expected. In response to concentrations of arsenic and sulfbr detected on catalyst samples from the LPMEOW Reactor, Eastman replaced both the arsine- and sulfiwremoval material in the Eastman guard bed which treats the primary syngas feed stream (&danced Gas) prior to its introduction into both the Eastman fixed-bed methanol plant and the LPMEOWM Demonstration Unit. After restarting the demonstration unit, the catalyst deactivation rate remained essentially unchanged. Parallel testing in the laboratory using arsine-doped, and subsequently arsine- and SuIfi-doped syngas, ako ftiIed to prove that arsine was responsible for the higher-than-expected rate of catalyst deactivation in the demonstration unit. Based on the results of plant operation and catalyst sampling, DOE accepted a recommendation by Air Products and Eastman to drain the initial charge of catalyst from the reactor and replace the charge with fresh catalyst. Prior to this catalyst turnaround, a final test was performed to determine the impact of raising the operating temperature of the LPMEOW Reactor from 250"C to 260oC. carbon. Activation of the new flesh charge of catalyst began on 13 November 1997. Just as in the original start-up in April of 1997, only a partial charge of catalyst (20,700 pounds) was activated to limit the amount of material exposed to poisons at the outset. An attempted restart of the LPMEOW Demonstration Unit on 26 November 1997 was unsuccessfid; settling of the flesh catalyst appeared to have occurred in the LPMEOFP Reactor and gas inlet piping, which resulted in the plugging of the gas sparger at the bottom of the vessel.